“We need men who can dream of things that never were.” It is this sentence spoken by John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963 which has undoubtedly influenced my industrial career. Whether it be everyday electronics for the general public, or the components industry or even the world of video and imagery, the technological innovations which have come into use these last few years have greatly modified the competitive market and ways of living. Some scientists talk of technological tsunamis because of the resulting economical and social stakes, which are so high. For the industrialist the main challenge is size, and the idea is to continually innovate, creating smaller and smaller objects with improved performances. Combining research with industry has no longer become a necessity but rather a real race against the clock in order to remain a leading force in this domain. Development strategies, conquering market shares, increases in productivity and ground-breaking ideas are now more than ever linked to the coordination of tasks which join research and industry.
The most staggering technological innovations of these last few years (those which have led to real changes in the job market, and those which have changed our everyday lives) were not based on the technology available at the time but were based on anticipation, i.e. looking ahead into the future. There are some striking examples that come to mind: from the era of the video recorder, today we have all adopted the DVD player in record time discovering video on demand and downloads, which have opened the way towards the dematerialization of physical supports. From the era of silverhalide photography, today we are all familiar with digital photography, using the computer as the central storage base and the central base for exchanging our documents. Despite what anyone says, we have entered into a virtual world where it is no longer a question of physical support but of speed and bandwidth. All of this would not have been made possible if certain scientists had not dared to think differently.